Bajaj to push sports and sports commuter bikes

Bajaj Auto on Tuesday said it wanted to grow in the sports commuter bikes market in India. The company launched Discover 125 ST in Gujarat and said it gets 17 percent of its sales from the sports commuter segment. Bajaj Auto sold 56,000 units last fiscal and aspires for a double-digit growth this year. 

"We want people to abandon 100cc motorcycles and come to 125cc motorcycles. We want to grow our market share in the category to 50 percent from current 40percent," said K Srinivas, president (motorcycle business), Bajaj Auto on Tuesday while launching the second generation of its flagship sports tourer brand Discover.

Against 11 percent growth of commuter bikes in the Indian market last fiscal, sports commuter bikes grew 36 percent, added Vimal Sumbly, GM (sales), Bajaj Auto. The commuter segment of 100 cc bikes would shrink as aspirational Indians takes to sports commuter bikes or sports bikes, he said adding Discover grew 186 percent in last fiscal in Gujarat market. 

Bajaj Auto created the sports commuter segment in India in 2004 with the launch of Discover. Of the motorcycles sold in India in Q1, 66 percent were commuter bikes, while sports and sports commuter bikes comprised 17 percent each. Two years back, the composition was 73 percent, 14 percent and 13 percent, respectively.